Ticketing Startup SeatGeek Adds Android App

Black Friday may have just passed, but sports fans are always hunting for deals.

The most desired item arguably on anyone’s wish list is tickets. Whether it’s moving down some aisles for a better view or digitally keeping track of games attended, technology has enabled fans to access sporting events in a manner of seconds. Smartphones ownership and usage impels a greater need for a mobile presence within the ticketing vertical.

In some respects, the secondary ticket market has virtually outpaced the primary one in the eyes of fans, both in terms of tech and preference. There are plenty of options online to peruse and gauge what’s the best price to pay for any given game. The inventory selection is seemingly endless, which means finding a ticket isn’t impossible. Also, being able to get tickets below its original value and clearer fees draws fans’ interest to continually explore these vendors.

Besides hosting the On Deck Cup as a prelude to the On Deck Conference, SeatGeek serves as a primary destination to search for tickets among the various sites out there. They have aggregated all of this information to ensure fans can view the full scope of prices and determine the best deal possible. Their site’s simple interface, navigation, and expediency has translated well with fans’ online needs.

A couple of weeks ago, though, SeatGeek released their first ever Android app now on Google Play. This property integrates all of the prominent features from their iOS version, which has been highlighted three different times in Apple’s App Store homepage during the past year. The two notable features that have been designed again to tailor the experienced based on this ecosystem are interactive venue maps and and view-from-seat images. The former allows users to zoom down to the row level to find tickets, while the latter depicts the exact seat prior to purchase.

SeatGeek informed SportTechie that the most pivotal lesson learned from their previous apps that’s been applied to Android was to completely converge the UX and UI as one similar experience across their app platforms. As it pertains to design, they worked really hard to ensure the key interaction points–like interactive maps, event search functionality, event discovery screens–look, feel, and operate in the same manner as their our app properties. iOS 7, indeed, impacted the design decisions in order to reflect the broader shift towards flatter, and simpler interfaces.

Thus, there aren’t many stark differences between Android and iOS, in terms features and functionality. Every detail on this iteration matches the expectations any user would want from a quality Android app. They definitely took their time to develop this app from the ground up and not simply rehash what was done on iOS beforehand.

“This new Android app is significant because it allows to better reach a growing portion of our user base. We’ve seen mobile web traffic to SeatGeek from Android devices grow by 50 percent in just the past three months–so the demand is there. This app now will give those users the best possible experience to search the entire ticket market at once from their Android device,” says SeatGeek’s Director of Communications, Will Flaherty.

With regards to monetization, SeatGeek has witnessed some interesting trends. Over 25 percent of their revenue now derives from mobile apps and mobile web, which is a substantial uptick over the last three to four months where it comprised 15 percent of their total revenue. The average transaction size for a mobile ticket purchase is on par with desktop usage. The new mobile revenue is essentially as valuable as the desktop transactions that these smartphone devices are replacing. Their insights reflect the holistic shift taking place with e-commerce.

“The other interesting thing we’ve seen is that mobile apps have become the go-to for tickets purchased day of the event. In fact, over the past three months, more money is spent via mobile on tickets bought day-of than is spent on desktop for tickets day-of. Day of the event is the only time we see this dynamic–any tickets purchased in advance of that are more likely to be bought via desktop than via mobile–though even that is shifting towards the latter,” continued Flaherty.

The holiday season bounds to be the busiest time for the ticket aspect of the sports industry, both in terms of ticket sales and volume. SeatGeek should also expect more Android downloads to come as fans obtain new Android devices as presents.

Entering the first couple of the new year, look out for SeatGeek to include the functionality necessary to log-in to their app with a desktop web account. This Android app covers the breadth of what they’re known for and what lies ahead for how fans want to buy tickets to their favorite games.